42. The Midnight Library. Matt Haig. 2020. 288 pages. [Source: Library] [adult fiction, adult science fiction, fantasy]
Premise/plot: The Midnight Library is a premise-driven, slow-moving, reflective novel. Nora Seed, our protagonist, hates her life. The book opens with a countdown until an attempt of the self-destructive sort. She's lost her job. She's lost her side job. Her cat has died. Her brother barely speaks with her. Nothing is going right. Nothing has gone right. Perhaps nothing has ever gone right. Her list of regrets is long, so long that it could in fact fill a library.
When Nora finds herself between life and death she enters the Midnight Library. A slightly more pleasant place to be than the Twilight Zone. Nora will have all the opportunities--infinite opportunities--to see how her life would have turned out if she'd made different choices. Big choices. Small choices. All the choices. Infinite parallel lives to step in and out of. But will any feel like home? Will living her other lives make her want to live?
My thoughts: The book was enjoyably thought-provoking in some ways. I liked the premise. I didn't love, love, love it. But I liked the concept. This is similar and dissimilar to It's a Wonderful Life. The book opens in the same rock-bottom place. BUT there are many, many paths to explore and not just the one if she'd never been born. It is not about how her life has impacted others. I mean in a vague way perhaps maybe if you squint and tilt your head. Nora has to learn to live life you just have to keep on keeping on, and don't think too much, don't navel-gaze, don't look for more meaning than there is, don't waste time thinking about the past or the future, just live life in the day. I don't even know if that was the message??? Honestly the messages were messy. And that was a bit of the point as well, perhaps. That life is messy, messy, messy. And it will never be anything but messy. Don't think that you're missing out on the "good life" because your life is a mess and you are a mess????
© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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